It is widely recognized that there are serious traffic accident risks associated with nomadic phone usage by motor vehicle drivers at times when the full attention of the driver should be directed to the driving task, and vehicle manufacturers have begun equipping certain vehicles with on-board communication systems that simplify or automate nomadic phone usage and thereby mitigate some of the safety concerns. In a typical installation, the communication system is wirelessly coupled to the driver's nomadic phone, and forms a human-machine interface (HMI) for enabling hands-free phone usage while the driver is operating the vehicle. However, it can be difficult and/or inconvenient to implement certain nomadic phone functions such as message checking without significantly distracting the driver. Also, it is desirable to encourage drivers to only interact with nomadic devices when consistent with safe operation of the vehicle. Accordingly, what is needed is an interactive HMI that allows the driver to selectively listen to nomadic phone messages without introducing any significant driver distraction or safety concerns.
Of course, interactive HMIs are generally known in the art, and have been used to simplify and streamline the operation and programming of complex consumer electronic devices such as personal computers and entertainment systems. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,454 to Hoffberg et al. discloses a programmable video cassette recorder having an interactive display device for presenting prompts or possible choices to the user, and receiving user input (accept/reject, for example) responsive to the presented prompt or choice. As also disclosed by Hoffberg et al., the inputs elicited from a given user can be used to construct a preference matrix, which then influences future prompts or choices presented to a given user.